Ever higher demands are imposed on motor control systems of motor vehicles, for example, with respect to fuel consumption optimization when using an internal combustion engine. For such an optimization of fuel consumption, a so-called stop-start operation is already known wherein, in certain vehicle situations, the internal combustion engine is brought to standstill or is automatically restarted by the engine control. The decision when the internal combustion engine can be shut off is, on the one hand, dependent upon vehicle information non-specific to the engine such as the availability of the electrical energy for a restart and on engine-specific information, for example, whether a catalytic converter heating is active.